the 3D Feathered Fossil pins are ready for pre-order! Sinornithosaurus, Confuciusornis and Microraptor, at greerstothers.storenvy
they’ll have sculpted metal bones, with flat enamel feathers to give a stained glass Saint aesthetic
oh hey, a head’s up for these: they’re more expensive to manufacture than regular pins, so I ordered a lower quantity. meaning, these will probably run out slightly faster than normal
Into The Spiderverse took 100% of its critically acclaimed visuals from comic books and street art and while there are obvious in-universe reasons for this it can’t be ignored that BOTH of these are traditionally seen as “lowbrow” populist art forms, here celebrated for their inherent beauty, complexity and sociopolitical importance. In this essay I will-
Where’s the essay OP
Not a full essay but lemmie tell you. Spoilers below.
Why does Miles stop at a time-sensitive moment to paint one of Peter’s suits when he’d probably want to get going as quickly as possible? Three reasons.
One, on a character level Miles is about to go into the scariest endgame fight he’s been in the entire movie. Taking the time to make the costume his own, to take this little part of the old Spiderman’s legacy and probably get some encouraging words from Aunt May is important to pysch himself up enough to do this.
Two, suiting up for the first time is an important rite of passage in superhero comics. It represents the character deliberately taking on the role. Miles has been wearing a kid’s costume because he feels like a kid trying to take on the role of a hero. By putting on a real costume, his own costume that he designed, he is becoming his own hero.
Three, his costume is an extension of his art. He uses spray paint to alter it, and we see little drips and splatters in the costume’s design. Miles is a street artist and his spider-suit is a street artists’s creation.
Miles’s street art and his coming into his own as Spiderman are directly linked in the narrative in a way that’s too perfect to be accidental. His costume is made with spray paint.
He’s bitten while painting a mural. He uses his spider-powers to put a sticker where his dad can’t find it. Jefferson doesn’t like Spiderman’s methods or Miles’s art. But in the end, he’s willing to work with both. And street art is the shared history Aaron, Jefferson and Miles all have even if they ended up on three drastically different paths.
Miles paints murals, throws stickers up on street signs, etc, both as self-expression and an expression of love for his city. It’s that same love for his home that makes him Spiderman, the city’s protector. His vigilante heroism and his illegal art are expressions of exact same thing.
And comics! This movie loves the language of comics!
It loves the humor in seeing the words float in the air around the characters! It loves stylized human figures and kirby dots and dynamic transitions! It loves the way comics tell stories (note that every time a characters is narrating their backstory in Into The Spiderverse it switches to comic format, doing highly comic-specific things like having three characters telling their stories side by side.)
Miles reads Spiderman comics in-universe and they’re what helps him understand what’s happening. How many people who worked on this movie do you think read a comic at a formative age and saw themselves in it, in some way?
Of course, if I’m going to talk about the “language” of comics or the “language” of street art I can’t ignore the fact that these two art forms have influenced each other immensely over the years, joyfully borrowing from each other at every opportunity.
if u ever find a genie and you’re really craving a dessert that looks like this:
do NOT say “i’d like a lifetime supply of raspberry crowns”
while this is, in fact, the name of the pastry, it’s ALSO the name of a species of wasp for some reason. the genie, being a nasty trickster, will no doubt give you a bunch of wasps.
Carlisle after drinking the blood of an animal that was being used to smuggle drugs: I’ve never told anyone this but one time Emmett said yeet and I thought he said eat so I said Emmett the only thing we can yeet is animal blood. He couldn’t stop laughing and ended up falling back and smashing through the stairs
Esme also on that same blood: I once broke all the individual keys on Edwards piano by accident and said it was gods sign telling him not to be with Bella… he cried for a week
some of you have never had sex with a vampire in the ocean and then birthed his mutant child at the risk of your own life, drinking blood to sustain the fetus for the duration of the pregnancy just to have your ex claim your newborn as his future bride and it shows
Literally screw everything about breaking dawn but especially the fact that they dressed Bella in heels and designer dresses
Bella as a vampire only wears hoodies and flannels and leggings she’s never worn a dress and Alice has to stop her from wearing onesies to school everyday this is absolutely canon
A few weeks ago a 15-year-old called me “Grandma” for being able to remember when the first Twilight film came out, and I still haven’t mentally or emotionally processed this
You can have a favorite in the primaries, and even make a passionate case for your favorite, without drilling down on why the other candidates are monsters. You really truly can.
Getting the negativity out of politics starts right here, with us. Make your candidate’s case by praising the fuck outta what they’ve done and what they’re standing for.
If you tell someone to ‘not’ think about something, what’re they gonna do? Think about it. Campaigning by telling people who not to vote for is not going to work. Frankly, I don’t even think that trying to make your point by ‘comparing’ the candidates works. There’s enough info out there. You only have finite time to interact with people. Use every goddamned second to praise the ever loving fuck out of the things you like about your candidate. Make the connections for how your candidate will have an impact on their life. I once talked to a gal who’d never voted in her life. She was wearing scrubs, so I told her that hey the DFL has been pushing for safe staffing levels for health care providers, wouldn’t that make her life better? So she said that we could count on her vote.
